5% budget increase allows schools to dodge a bullet on making major cuts
The time has come yet again for budget debates, and this year, unexpectedly high healthcare costs threatened substantial cuts to departments across the town. However, after negotiating with town employee unions to decrease healthcare costs, healthcare expenses will only increase by about 1%, rather than 8%, which is what they originally were projected to be. Because of this negotiation, town departments like the schools are saved from having to make extreme cuts to their budgets.
On March 30 and 31, Town Meeting approved a $150 million operating expenses budget. In addition to lowering the healthcare costs, $2.6 million dollars were pulled from free cash funds to cover some of this year’s expenses, without implementing yet another tax override, yet this was done after the budget was approved.
The schools’ budget allows for $66 million in spending, about a 5% increase from last year’s budget. With special education as one of the main factors for the schools being over budget for 2014, $14 million will go towards special education programs. However, a large amount of that comes from out of district tuitions.
As part of the new plan, the schools will institute a world language pilot program at the elementary school level. “Given everything we know, it’s criminal that we don’t start teaching a second language until seventh grade,” Superintendent David Lussier said to Town Meeting.
In addition to adding new programs for the 2015-2016 school year, the schools have also found places to tighten up their spending. A new system of paying substitute teachers will save over $250,000 by paying substitutes $100 a day. Additionally, school committee estimates that the schools will save $175,000 from turnover, the savings from the salary difference when an experienced teacher leaves and is replaced with a new one. School Committee member Matt Kelley explained how these savings are taken into account. “It’s hard to predict how much we’re going to save from that because we don’t know who’s going to retire and who’s going to leave,” he said, “but we look at past history, and we try to make a good estimate of that. ”
When forming the budget, the school committee and the school administrators work together to craft a plan that will fit the best interests of the schools as well as addressing the town’s guidelines. School Committee gives the superintendent and school administration “eye level guidance,” as Kelley described it. The school administrators work together to draft a budget and proposes it to School Committee, who takes their suggested budget into account and drafts their own budget proposal, which School Committee then votes on. Whereupon it goes to Town Meeting for a vote. “Supportive smart thorough, that’s how I would describe the process,” said Jamie Chisum, high school principal.
Chisum explained the need to balance progress with funding when drafting the budget. “We have some fiscal realities we have to face. There’s a limit for everybody. We’re generously supported, but we have limits that we have to be responsible with,” he said.
When deciding on what to include in the budget, Kelley explained that it is more than just a matter of personal preference. “[Some] things you know may be for the good of the district. It’s not really personal preference so much as personal judgement based on listening to people in the community, talking to people, listening to the administration and just trying to decide what we think is best for the district as a whole,” he said. However, when it boils down to it, there still is an element of personal input. “Different people on school committee value different things differently,” said Kelley. “We do have our different approach and perspective on things, and you can’t escape the fact that. At some point, it is a personal decision, but it’s informed by more things; it’s not just a judgement call.”
This article appeared in the April 2015 print issue of The Bradford.
On March 30 and 31, Town Meeting approved a $150 million operating expenses budget. In addition to lowering the healthcare costs, $2.6 million dollars were pulled from free cash funds to cover some of this year’s expenses, without implementing yet another tax override, yet this was done after the budget was approved.
The schools’ budget allows for $66 million in spending, about a 5% increase from last year’s budget. With special education as one of the main factors for the schools being over budget for 2014, $14 million will go towards special education programs. However, a large amount of that comes from out of district tuitions.
As part of the new plan, the schools will institute a world language pilot program at the elementary school level. “Given everything we know, it’s criminal that we don’t start teaching a second language until seventh grade,” Superintendent David Lussier said to Town Meeting.
In addition to adding new programs for the 2015-2016 school year, the schools have also found places to tighten up their spending. A new system of paying substitute teachers will save over $250,000 by paying substitutes $100 a day. Additionally, school committee estimates that the schools will save $175,000 from turnover, the savings from the salary difference when an experienced teacher leaves and is replaced with a new one. School Committee member Matt Kelley explained how these savings are taken into account. “It’s hard to predict how much we’re going to save from that because we don’t know who’s going to retire and who’s going to leave,” he said, “but we look at past history, and we try to make a good estimate of that. ”
When forming the budget, the school committee and the school administrators work together to craft a plan that will fit the best interests of the schools as well as addressing the town’s guidelines. School Committee gives the superintendent and school administration “eye level guidance,” as Kelley described it. The school administrators work together to draft a budget and proposes it to School Committee, who takes their suggested budget into account and drafts their own budget proposal, which School Committee then votes on. Whereupon it goes to Town Meeting for a vote. “Supportive smart thorough, that’s how I would describe the process,” said Jamie Chisum, high school principal.
Chisum explained the need to balance progress with funding when drafting the budget. “We have some fiscal realities we have to face. There’s a limit for everybody. We’re generously supported, but we have limits that we have to be responsible with,” he said.
When deciding on what to include in the budget, Kelley explained that it is more than just a matter of personal preference. “[Some] things you know may be for the good of the district. It’s not really personal preference so much as personal judgement based on listening to people in the community, talking to people, listening to the administration and just trying to decide what we think is best for the district as a whole,” he said. However, when it boils down to it, there still is an element of personal input. “Different people on school committee value different things differently,” said Kelley. “We do have our different approach and perspective on things, and you can’t escape the fact that. At some point, it is a personal decision, but it’s informed by more things; it’s not just a judgement call.”
This article appeared in the April 2015 print issue of The Bradford.